Since 2003, the floor at Pauley Pavilion hasn’t been quite so shiny. They are currently preparing a Zamboni for the arrival of a savior in Rosemont, Illinois. (where?)

Lavin, who took some other guy’s players to a 2001 Pac-10 Coach of the Year award at UCLA, hasn’t graced a sideline since 2003. Lavin was one season away from returning UCLA to glory (source redacted) What has this new Blue Demon excited about Lav’s interest is his that greasy mop situated on top of that massive, basketball knowledge vault (may or may not be true).

Maybe. Seems like all anyone wants to mention with the Illini is, “should their students have rushed the floor after a home win against Sparty?”

How about the larger question of who’s got a shot at the Big Ten? Believe it or not, the Fighting Zooks have a chance at taking home the Big Ten regular season title. At 9-3, they’re tied atop the conference and have the tie breaker against a Michigan State team they don’t play for the remainder of the season. It’s highly unlikely that Illinois runs the table with difficult games at Purdue and at Ohio State. Probably would have said the same thing before Tuesday at Wisconsin.

We felt it was time for a little levity at the old Beadlemaniacs. I certainly hope the other writers make fun of my coach for being a terrible coach, first and foremost, but also for having a heart issue that is driving recruits to Northern Iowa and Iowa State. We’re a football and wrestling school. They should have to play basketball outdoors and only recruit 300 pound men so they have some sort of advantage.

So, in picture form, here is my analysis of Bill Self’s toupee and his “high-low” offense. For the record, yes… I hate this man. He screwed over Illinois. I’m in the process of finding my “Go Fuck yourSelf, Bill” t-shirt, but it’s taking longer than I thought.

Michigan State opened the season as the number two team in the country in most polls out there. Then there was the Florida loss. Followed by a brutal drubbing against the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill (despite the final score). Losing to Texas? Nothing to be ashamed of. However, since the Texas game, Sparty has ripped off nine straight wins. A quality one against Wisconsin, too. But for a team that returned stars like Lucas, Green, Morgan and Summers, they are dreadfully underperforming.

You don’t have a whole lot of choices in either the association or the college ranks tonight. St. Mary’s and Gonzaga battle for WCC supremacy. Like a regular season version of the Fiesta Bowl. Gonzaga, as Fetch has beaten into your brain, isn’t even a second weekend threat this season. Outside of Omar Samhan, St. Mary’s isn’t really exciting either.

We’ve installed it at the top of the page and will for the foreseeable future but here’s what the Top 25 boiled out to this past week. Votes were cast as of 1.12.09:

1. Texas (3)

2. Kansas

3. Kentucky

4. Syracuse

5. Purdue

6. Duke

7. Villanova

8. West Virginia

9. Tennessee

10. Wisconsin

11. Michigan St

12. Kansas St

13. Georgetown

14. BYU

15. UConn

16. Missouri

17. Georgia Tech

18. Baylor

19. Minnesota

20. Pitt

21. Miami

22. Northern Iowa

23. North Carolina

24. Temple

25. Clemson

Also Receiving Votes: Pitt, Gonzaga, Cal, Florida State, New Mexico

Interesting Tidbits from this week: Only one person had Northern Iowa, UNC, and Temple on his ballot, while all 3 of us ranked Clemson, yet the aforementioned three are ranked higher than Clemson. Also, two people ranked Florida State yet they find themselves on the outside of the poll.

Duke was ranked 6th, 7th and 8th by our three pollsters. Purdue was ranked 4th, 6th and 6th.

And I will say this: Tomas Verde and Souvenir City’s polls were remarkably similar.

It’s pretty well known that I’m not a huge Big 12 fan. Mostly because of football and the traitorous Bill Self. But when I looked at KenPom last night after the Bedlam game and saw that Oklahoma was ranked 28th in the country in offensive turnover efficiency and then started looking at some of their main contributors I must say…